WATCH: Texas House → Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday was set to advance a new congressional map crafted to hand five additional U.

The gambit has triggered a national redistricting war, with governors of both parties threatening to initiate similar efforts in other states.

Former President Barack Obama has expressed support for California Governor Gavin Newsom's approach to redistricting.

The new map is aimed at flipping five Democratic-held US House seats. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A second special session that has made approving the map a priority started Friday, shortly after the first one ended.

A partisan move by Texas to redraw its congressional maps in the middle of the decade to secure five more GOP seats in the U.S. House set off a clamor to replicate the effort in statehouses controlled by both parties.

The Texas House reached a quorum Monday after dozens of Democrats who left the state to block the vote on a GOP-favored congressional redistricting plan returned to Austin. The Democrats were asked to sign "permission slips" so they could be escorted by state troopers to ensure they would return when the session reconvenes Wednesday,